Special counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed a former employee of data firm Cambridge Analytica (CA), a spokesperson for the employee told British media earlier this week.
According to reports, Brittany Kaiser, who used to head business development for CA, is cooperating fully with Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the last presidential election.
Kaiser says that the subpoena came after The Guardian, a British media outlet, reported last year that she had a face- to-face meeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while she was still working for CA. WikiLeaks has been a major focus of Mueller’s probe because of the organization’s release of hacked Democratic emails ahead of the election. The WikiLeaks connection to Trump also lead to the recent arrest of the president’s confidant and campaign advisor Roger Stone.
The suspicions of Cambridge Analytica began to pick up during the second half of 2016. In October of that year, it became known that President Donald Trump —at that time, still candidate Trump— had hired the company to handle his promotion in the digital sphere. The Trump campaign was drawn to CA and the company’s claim of being able to offer hyper-targeted and hyper-persuasive messages to people via social media. Following revelations of its questionable data-collection activities, CA was forced to shutdown in May of last year.
Kaiser is the second individual connected to the firm subpoenaed by the special counsel.
But this is not Kaiser’s first appearance before a governmental body to speak about her former job. She also testified to the UK parliament last April during which she claimed Cambridge Analytica had carried out in-depth work for Leave.EU, the political group that campaigned for Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.
